GP partners: why your pension certificate doesn't match
Your certificate isn't your profit share. Private income, the employer part of NHS income and out-of-hours work all move the figure. See each step from one to the other, and what's left to pay.
Your answer
Enter your share of the practice profit and income.
About this calculator
For GP partners in England in the NHS Pension Scheme, checking the annual certificate of pensionable profits (the Type 1 certificate) against the practice accounts. Wales works the same way through the Local Health Board. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own schemes.
It isn't for salaried GPs (they use the Type 2 form), freelance locums (Forms A and B) or partners in a limited company (which has its own certificate).
What happens to your answers
We don’t keep them. Your answers go to our server to do the sums and aren’t stored or logged. If you copy a link to your answers, they’re in the link itself, so only share it with people you trust.
How it’s worked out
We start from your share of the profit. If the accounts took your pension off as a cost, we add it back, because the certificate starts before pension. Then we take off private and other non-NHS income, less the share of costs that goes with it (non-NHS income ÷ total income, NHS Pensions' standard way). Notional and cost rent stay in.
NHS income is treated as including the 14.38% employer part, so what's left is multiplied by 100/114.38. Out-of-hours and other SOLO work is added without that step. Your rate (5.2% to 12.5%) is set by all your GP pensionable income, including locum work on Forms A and B, and applies to all of it. We compare the contributions due with what PCSE took on account to show the balance.
Common reasons the figures don't match: private income, the employer part, pension shown as a cost in the accounts, out-of-hours work, practice years that don't end on 31 March, and rent from others taken off (or notional rent taken off by mistake).
Worked example
Your certificate should show about £99,362 of pensionable profit, with about £1,558 still to pay.
2026/27 NHS pension year · GP partner in England · 2015 Scheme, 12.5% rate · standard way of sharing costs
| Your share of the practice profit in the accounts | £110,000 |
|---|---|
| Less private and non-NHS fees (insurance and DWP medicals, cremation forms, private patients): not NHS income | − £12,000 |
| Less rent from letting part of the surgery to others: not pensionable, even from an NHS body | − £3,000 |
| Plus the practice costs that go with that income: 5% of your share of costs (non-NHS income ÷ total income) | + £9,500 |
| Notional or cost rent stays in: it's NHS income and pensionable | £20,000 |
| Your NHS profit from the practice, including the employer part | £104,500 |
| Less the employer part built into NHS income: × 100/114.38 | − £13,138 |
| Your pensionable profit from the practice | £91,362 |
| Plus out-of-hours and other NHS fee work on GP SOLO forms: on the same certificate, with nothing taken off | + £8,000 |
| Pensionable profit on your certificate | £99,362 |
| Your rate: 12.5%, set by all your GP pensionable income (£99,362) | 12.5% |
| Your own contributions due: 12.5% of your practice pensionable profit | £11,420 |
| Employer contributions due: 14.38% of it | £13,138 |
| Less what PCSE took on account during the year | − £23,000 |
| Still to pay at the year end | £1,558 |
Worked out using HMRC's published rates for the 2026/27 tax year (6 April 2026 to 5 April 2027), on a yearly basis.
Questions people ask
Why is my certificate figure lower than my profit share?
Mostly because NHS income includes the 14.38% employer part, which isn't pensionable, and because private work isn't NHS income. Out-of-hours work on SOLO forms pushes it the other way.
Is notional rent pensionable?
Yes. Notional and cost rent are NHS income, so they stay in your pensionable profit. Rent from letting part of the surgery to another organisation is not pensionable.
What happened to seniority payments?
They ended completely on 31 March 2020, so they're no longer part of your NHS income. Old certificates may include them, which is one reason older years look different.
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